Tuesday, February 07, 2012

In celebration of today Appeals Court ruling against Proposition 8, I was going to write something uplifting about the perseverance of the lgbtq community.

But I decided not to.

For one, I am sure that there are so many others who are going to be dwelling on that subject. For another, based upon the reactions coming from the religious right, I feel that another direction is in order, i.e. a missive directed to Maggie Gallagher, the National Organization for Marriage, the Family Research Council, and all of those other folks whining about today's ruling.

This missive would have included Mitt Romney because of his negative words today. However, seeing that it is Mitt Romney, I figure a week from now will find him supporting the ruling.

Maggie Gallagher sent out the following twitter message:

Meanwhile, others such as the Family Research Council, Concerned Women for America, etc. have sent out the usual junk about "unelected judges," "activist judges," "redefinition of marriage," and all of the other hyperbolic mess we have come to expect from them.

But here is my question and it's relatively simple.

Just where were these folks when the original trial was taking place last year? Why didn't any of these folks testify as to why Prop 8 was needed? Remember, the pro-Prop 8 side could only find two witnesses and both did a poor job defending the law. One witness, David Blankenhorn, inadvertently made the case for the anti-Prop 8 side?

Where was Gallagher, Brian Brown, Peter Sprigg, Tony Perkins, or any of these other folks who put so much work in getting the law passed? Gallagher's tweet alleges that seven million people voted for the law. However amongst those seven million, only two witnesses could be found?

Who are they kidding?

All of this outrage after the fact is bogus. It's a diversion and a pitiful one at that. It's an attempt to obscure a basic fact.

And that basic fact is that Proposition 8 was built with deliberate lies that Maggie Gallagher, Tony Perkins, Peter Sprigg, and the rest of those pushing it were too fearful to defend in court.

None of these people - not one - had the guts to stand up in court, take an oath, and attest to the veracity of the claims they made regarding what allegedly would happen should marriage equality become legal in California because they knew that the lawyers attacking the law - David Boies and Ted Olson - would call them out and reveal their deception.

So Maggie dearest and the rest of you folks, please stop whining. You are not fooling anyone. You dug this hole yourself so you have no reason to cry out when the dirt comes in to bury you.

WorldStarHipHop.com posted a video to its website today of an apparent Atlanta street gang beating a man the gang called a “faggot.” The video was posted on the site with the headline, "Dead Wrong: Man Wearing Skinny Jeans Gets Sucker Attacked & G'z Throw a Tire On Him for Being Gay."

“Jack City, no faggots,” a man says at the start of the video. “Jack City” is an apparent reference to a street gang.

The operator of the camera was also heard shouting “No faggots in Jack City, man” at least four times during the beating. The apparent hate crime occurred outside a neighborhood grocery store on McDaniel Street, according to The Smoking Gun website.

There is no indication of when the video was filmed.

In other news:

TODAY: 12th Annual National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day - You can't tell me that there is no link between the violence seen above, Roland Martin's flippant remark about anti-gay violence and how gay black men feel about their own community. These feelings have a way of making them susceptible to negative behaviors which lead to HIV/AIDS.

One thing said during the debate between NOM's Brian Brown and Freedom to Marry Evan Wolfson last week got my blood boiling.

And this morning, I am still pissed.

More to the point, I'm pissed off to the highest levels of "pissivity."

The reason for this is a claim Brown made during the debate. It happened at 6:20 when he was attempting to refute a point Wolfson made regarding on the unfairness of voting on people's rights. During his point, Wolfson brought up Congressman and civil rights legend John Lewis. This is what Brown said:

And while Evan brings up Congressman Lewis, Dr. Walter Fauntroy who organized Dr. King's March on Washington . . . actually supports the notion that people should vote on this."

Brown then goes on a tangent about how African-Americans supposedly oppose marriage equality at a high number. Of course Wolfson refutes this notion, but let's just analyze Brown's above statement.

How dare he.

Walter Fauntroy is a former Congressman and a civil rights legend. He was one of the coordinators of the March on Washington. He was the D.C. Coordinator. But he did not organize the march.

That designation belongs to Bayard Rustin, an openly gay African-American who, until recently, never got his due.

I know it is in the game plan of NOM to play the gay and black communities against one another, but to yank proper credit from Bayard Rustin for his role in the March on Washington and assign it to another black leader supporting NOM's position goes beyond the pale. It's insulting to me as a gay man and an African-American.

Regardless of whether this gaffe by Brian was intentional or not, it says a lot about what he and NOM actually thinks about the black community.

And that's not much.

If the gaffe was intentional, it demonstrates how Brown and NOM are willing to exploit the African-American community, even at the point of altering our history to suit their agenda.

And if Brown's comments was not intentional, then the implications are worse. It demonstrates that NOM and Brown doesn't care enough about black people to get our history correct. All that matters to them is the success of manipulating the black community against the gay community.

I sincerely hope those black leaders who are kissing up to NOM are paying attention.

But who am I kidding? Even if they were, I doubt it would make a difference.

About Me

Alvin McEwen is 46-year-old African-American gay man who resides in Columbia, SC.
McEwen's blog, Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters, and writings have been mentioned by Americablog.com, Goodasyou.org, People for the American Way, PageOneQ.com, The Washington Post, Raw Story, The Advocate, Media Matters for America, Crooksandliars.com, Thinkprogress.org, Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish, Melissa Harris-Perry, The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, Newsweek, The Daily Beast, The Washington Blade, and Foxnews.com.
In addition, he is also a past contributor to Pam's House Blend,Justice For All, LGBTQ Nation, and Alternet.org. He is a present contributor to the Daily Kos and the Huffington Post,
He is the 2007 recipient of the Harriet Daniels Hancock Volunteer of the Year Award and the 2010 recipient of the Order of the Pink Palmetto from the SC Pride Movement as well as the 2009 recipient of the Audre Lorde/James Baldwin Civil Rights Activist Award from SC Black Pride. In addition, he is a three-time nominee of the Ed Madden Media Advocacy Award from SC Pride.